US still leading the way on competitiveness

A new survey reveals that progress has been slow, despite the much-vaunted aim to make the bloc the most dynamic economy in the world by the end of the decade.

According to the study by the World Economic Forum (WEF), only Nordic countries have managed to surpass the US.

The WEF states that, on a number of measures of competitiveness, the average EU score (out of seven) is 4.97 compared with 5.55 for America.

The Forum adds that Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece perform poorly in most of the eight criteria used to measure competitiveness.

Finland scored particularly highly on information society, innovation and networking, while other Nordic countries also did well on social inclusion and sustainable development. The UK came fourth while Italy, a member of the G7 group of seven top industrial countries performed worse than Spain. The top accession countries by this measure are Slovenia and Estonia while Romania and Bulgaria, who hope to join the EU by 2007, are at the bottom of the league table.

Dr Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist of the WEF, said: “Policymakers in Europe will have to focus economies on accelerating the pace of reform.

“The 2010 goals are achievable and should now receive the same degree of attention as the completion of the single market by 1992 did 15 years ago.”